Together: Working in partnership with children and youth to enhance their rights in responses to crisis situations such as Covid-19 and other emergencies

ended

This project aims to contribute to embed children’s rights in the responses to crisis situations such as the Covid-19 pandemic and other emergencies across the EU, by empowering children and youth living in precarious family situations and in alternative care to participate meaningfully in decisions and solutions at local, regional and national level on all matters affecting them. As experts on their own lives, children and youth must be meaningfully participating in developing response plans for navigating out of the pandemic. It is not only their fundamental right to participate, but their experiences make them key in identifying what good solutions look like. The meaningful participation of children and youth in decision-making processes around responses to emergencies will optimize their efficiency and impact. As a result, a collaborative approach, involving children, youth, the professionals working for and with them, as well public authorities, is the only viable way forward to effectively ensure meaningful child and youth participation in responses to crisis situations such as COVID-19 and other emergencies. In response to this, the specific objectives of this project are: 1) Children, youth and the professionals supporting them as well as policy makers improve their capacity to work in partnership in public decision-making processes to ensure that the needs and concerns of children and youth living in precarious family situations and in alternative care are properly taken into account in responses to the emergencies. 2) Children and youth living in precarious family situations and in alternative care participate meaningfully in identifying, developing and advocating for policy recommendations to embed child-rights based and inclusive responses to emergencies.